Monday, August 20, 2012

Almost Death and Soon to be Death

I hope the gods aren't trying to tell me something.... Crazy things are happening all around me all I can think about is the OWS I have coming up this weekend and how I don't want to drown doing it and all I really want to do is get out of that water as fast as possible and get to the bike.  Where I won't die.

Friday night we went on our usual thank-you-eye-doctors-for-referring-to-us dinner out.  Each year a large ophthalmology office has a big outing for the local optometrists and their spouses.  We always take a ferry to a different island in Casco Bay and have a lovely dinner with drinks and dessert and party favors and then take the ferry back to Portland.  It's lots of fun and a great night out and usually coincides nicely with my birthday week.  This year was no different except for the crazy-ass lightening storm that started just as we were finishing dinner. 

I love a good lightening storm and went out to the porch to watch the bolts of lightening hit the water.  Of course, there was loud thunder to match.  And rain.  Which was fine because we were inside. 

I thought it would pass before we were ready to go back to the ferry but, it didn't.  We ended up walking back to the dock in a lull in the rain with lightening flashing everywhere.  That was a little scary, but I didn't really think I'd get hit by lightening so I wasn't too worried.  I mean, really, I have a better chance of winning the lottery, right?

So we managed to get back to the boat without getting struck and we headed back to the mainland.  I really wasn't worried at all, even though we were on a boat in the middle of the harbor in a lightening storm, until we went through what was probably the center of the storm.  Crazy rain, crazy hail, winds, you name it.  And then the Captain cut the engine.

That's when I became scared.

Me in my head:  Why the f**k is he cutting the engine?  He can't see.  Why the f**k can't he see?  Doesn't he have weather radar and GPS to tell him where he is?  WTF?  What if he can't start the engine.  We are f**king dead in the water.  This was not how I envisioned my death.  Where the f**k are the life jackets?  Holy shit.  Open the window in case we get capsized.

The the captain comes on the intercom to tell us he is taking a detour.  Detour??!!  In Casco Bay?  Where the heck are you going to go??  All I can think of is this is not how I wanted to have my first OWS.....

We were on Long Island and needed to get where you see the picture of the ship which is Portland.  I'm guessing we went around Great Diamond Island instead of between GDI and Peaks Island.

Thankfully, after the "detour" we made it safely back to Portland and then back to Boothbay Harbor.  Phew.  One near death avoided.



Much to my annoyance, this past week has been Shark Week.  Great.  Thanks.  That's just what I need to hear about right before ocean swimming next weekend.  Woo.  Not to mention, my husband calls my wetsuit (which just arrived in the mail the other day), my seal suit.  Yah.  Thanks for that visual.  Guess I'll sit down and watch "When Sharks Attack".....
What I will look like to a shark.  Nice.

Thankfully, I'm in the Slow and Old age group, so by the time I get in the ocean, all the sharks should be pretty well fed from the pros and younger age groupers. 



To top things off, in the local/New England news this week and last week, were reports of two separate deaths in two different triathlons!  ON THE SWIM!!  Both of them!!  Wtf.  Two men died, one during IMLP and one during the Vermont Nationals this past weekend.  I'm so glad I'll have that in the back of my mind the whole time I'm swimming.  Not.

One good thing that I learned about the swim this weekend is that we only have to swim out about 100 yds to the first buoy and then we swim the bulk of the course along the beach until we reach the next buoy and then another 100 yds back to the beach.  I had envisioned the course going 1/3 mile out in the ocean, 1/3 mile along the beach, then 1/3 back in to the beach.  I do feel a little better about the swim knowing I won't be so far out to sea. 

Thank goodness for small favors.



3 comments:

Terzah said...

You cracked me up with the image of the sharks being well-fed on the pros and younger age groupers.

Sounds like pre-race jitters to me!

Not that I will ever do an OWS....

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Yikes! Glad you survived it all and good luck with swimming!

Running With The Girls said...

Oh goodness - I would have freaked out!!! & you are a rockstar with the swimming. I laughed at only a 100 yds....I'd be dead before that point. :)